1893 CE • Chicago, IL
"All about roamed great herds of buffalo that no man could number, while moose, deer, and elk were found from ocean to ocean. Pigeons, ducks, and geese moved in great clouds through the air. Fish swarmed our streams, lakes, and seas. All were provided by the Great Spirit for our use. We destroyed none except for food and dress. The cyclone of civilization rolled westward. Forests untold centuries were swept away. Streams dried up. Lakes fell back from their ancient bounds. All our fathers once loved to gaze upon was destroyed, defaced, or marred, except the sun, moon, and starry skies, which the Great Spirit, in his wisdom, hung beyond the white man's reach. Still the storm cloud rolled. Before its lightning and thunder, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air withered like grass before the flame, were shot for the love of power to kill alone, and left to spoil upon the plains."
speech by Chief Simon Pokagon at the Great Columbian Fair in Chicago, Pokagon's father had sold land to white colonists 60 years earlier that would later become Chicago Chief Simon Pokagon, "The Cyclone of Civilization," O-Gi-Maw-Kwe Mit-I-Gwa-Ki (Queen of the Woods) (Hartford, MI: C.H. Engle, 1901), 20-23."
Image: Public domain
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